Coming Home Now
by akane47
Summary: Tae-kyung's family welcomes him home from a trip abroad. Set within the This Above All-verse.


**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_, and the title of this fic from a song by the 1990s Irish boy band, Boyzone. Ahh, boy bands. I find it hard to keep track of all the Korean groups, but have very fond memories of the post-grunge US and European boy bands.

**Author's Notes: **Here's a little future-fic for you. I'm working on a couple of fics where they're all still single and younger, but we all knew that this was inevitable, wasn't it? :-p Thank you to everyone who reviewed my last YB fic: Comet Wong, flinn and Luminous Circus!

**COMING HOME NOW**

The twins had school tomorrow, but Mi-nyeo let them stay up late to welcome their father home. She knew that Tae-kyung always looked forward to seeing them the moment he arrived, and even when he came home late at night, Ji-hyun and Ji-hwan were too happy to see their father to be cranky from lack of sleep.

The family's ritual was this: after receiving word that Tae-kyung was on his way home from the airport, Mi-nyeo would prepare the tea things and make the children presentable. Mother and sons would take their places on the sofa in the living room, where the boys, wearing matching pajamas if it was nighttime, would fidget impatiently (Ji-hwan a little more impatient than his older brother) until the front door opened. Tae-kyung would enter the house to a chorus of childish voices crying, "Welcome home, Appa!" and, beaming, bend down to embrace his sons. They would help him remove his coat and shoes, and then he would hug his wife and open his suitcase to distribute presents.

The latest tour had taken the band (now named Archangel to reflect the fact that the members were more grown-up than when they had started out) around Southeast Asia, so Tae-kyung had brought home jewelry and Thai silk for Mi-nyeo and all sorts of toys for the twins.

Mi-nyeo smilingly admired her gifts for a while before going to the kitchen to prepare some tea for herself and her husband, and warm milk for the children. When she returned, she saw that Ji-hwan had already opened all of his father's presents to him, while Ji-hyun was still engrossed in the first of his own gifts, a carved wooden frog that croaked when you rubbed a stick over the notches in its back.

"It sounds just like a real frog," the boy said. He was the elder twin by an hour and twenty minutes.

Tae-kyung nodded solemnly. "I thought so, too, when I saw it. Do you like it?"

"It's really cool, Appa!" Ji-hwan said enthusiastically. "But this spaceship is cool, too! Have you opened your spaceship yet, hyung?" he demanded. "Open it so we can see what color yours is!"

"Don't rush your brother," Mi-nyeo began, but had to just smile and shake her head as Ji-hyun obligingly reached for the box that contained the spaceship. Like her and her own twin, the boys looked remarkably similar, but at the age of six, they were starting to exhibit different personalities. She would have to talk to Tae-kyung about not getting them identical presents next time.

However, that could wait. Mi-nyeo turned back to her husband and smiled, delighted to have him and their friends back home safe and sound. "How was the tour?" she asked as they settled back with their tea to watch the children play.

Tae-kyung nodded as he took a sip of his tea. "It went very well, I think, except Shin-woo couldn't get back here soon enough. He didn't want Ha-neul to have the baby while he was away."

She laughed. "They waited just like they promised they would."

"I don't see what the big deal is. They already have one."

"This one's a boy," she pointed out. "I don't think it really matters to us mothers, because all we really want is for the baby to be healthy, but you fathers have this thing about sons."

"I wasn't like that."

"That's because you got a lucky two-for-one deal the first time around."

She was teasing, and she expected Tae-kyung to scowl, but instead his lips curved in a smile as he glanced at their sons. "I got _very_ lucky," he agreed.

By now, Ji-hyun had finally opened all his presents and was lining them up neatly on the carpet while drinking his milk and fastidiously licking off any milk moustaches that formed. On the other hand, Ji-hwan was busy enacting a death match between his spaceship and a red stuffed elephant. "Did you get to ride an elephant on your trip, Appa?" he asked, looking up after crashing the two toys together.

Tae-kyung nodded. "And I have a picture to prove it."

"Was the elephant really tall?"

"Yes, it was. We had to climb a tree to get on."

"Were you scared?"

"Of course not!" the boys' father declared. "Actually, it was your Uncle Mi-nam who was scared."

Mi-nyeo clucked disapprovingly as Tae-kyung and the twins snickered. "That's not very nice."

"Well, I'm sure your brother is at home right now, telling his girls that _I_ was the one scared of the elephant," her husband pointed out with an unrepentant grin. "So this makes us even."

"Did you have other adventures, Appa?" Ji-hyun asked.

"I definitely did," his father replied, and launched into a round of stories about the things he did and saw while on tour. He told them how their elephant fell in love with their Uncle Jeremy and refused to leave him alone even after the ride was over; of watching a professional basketball game in Singapore and having the entire arena erupt in cheers when he and his bandmates' faces appeared on the giant screen; of visiting a beach with coconut trees waving in the warm breeze and water so blue that mid-October Seoul seemed worlds away.

"It all sounds wonderful," Mi-nyeo said as she listened raptly, her eyes shining like stars.

"You should have adventures like that, too, Omma," Ji-hwan remarked, now trying to build a tower out of his new toys. "It's too bad you can't be a star like Appa."

The boy's mother laughed. "I have plenty of adventures with you boys. That's enough for me."

"It's not the same."

Mi-nyeo glanced at her husband, who returned the look with a small smile. One day, they would tell the boys about how their mother had once pretended to be her brother; about her time as a member of AN JELL and how she and their father had fallen in love while trying to keep her secret; and that she knew what it was like to be a star, but preferred to live quietly, teaching school and making a home for her family. (Besides, Tae-kyung had once observed dryly after his wife had glued her fingers together for the millionth time during the course of their relationship, it was probably safer for her and the rest of the world if she stayed home, anyway.)

"No, it's not," Mi-nyeo agreed with her son, "but it's just as special."


End file.
